Tuesday, 08 November 2016

When we moved into our new home the boys got new beds. Big boys' beds.

Big boys' beds which are still too small when your first born passes the 6'1" mark... but that it's a story for another time.

Today let's talk about his new quilt.

When I asked No 1 if he'd like me to make him one for his new room his reply was: "if you want". Given his age (15) and the raging teenage hormones I took that as a "yes mum I'd love you too" and got to work. Delusional? Me?

It took a while.

Life got in the way.

Then I decided to do a lot of heavy quilting on it...

That took even longer.

And then when I finished it I didn't take pictures... and what you're getting today it's a bit of a mess. Basically old photos on my phones and me chasing the light around the house with nobody to hold the damn thing up for me.

So... the bottom half looks like this:

The top half (upside down... just turn your monitor please...)

And when it's on his bed (bad light, messy room... you really don't know what was out of view... sigh) is like this:

Or sometimes like this (as you can see he doesn't mind which way it goes... #whydoIbother...

Or you can hang it crookedly from the top of the wardrobe and it looks like this:

I used all the blue fabric/scraps I had and it was a lot of fun to make. I tried not to over think it and reign myself in a bit...

and for the quilting I tried to match the tread to the fabric... with a little of variegated fun thrown in the mix. I like doing my own quilting but by the end I would have gladly paid somebody to do it for me.

Yesterday I bought wadding for three finished quilt tops... watch this space.

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

I finished Bruce's autobiography. Brilliant Book. Fair enough I might be a teensy weensy bit biased but I really enjoyed it. I made me re-listened to a lot of music I hadn't listened to for years and years.... It was quite... grounding for want of a better word. Like it tightened the connection between my younger, free/dreaming self and my middle aged (let's not kid ourselves here), mother/wife/housewife self.

I am but one an only.

I don't like biography but weirdly and the only three I've ever read have been of musicians: Keith Richards, book club choice. I'm not a Rolling Stone fan, and the one of the crazy singer dude of the Red Hot Chilly Pepper, and I don't like their music either, maybe the book was a present? They were both vaguely interesting in a 'they're-life-could;t-be-more-different-from-mine kind of way.

Mr M and I have finally and very belatedly joined the "homeland" fandom. I think it's safe to say we're obsessed. We watched two or three episode a night... We're only half way series 3 so DON'T say anything. Please.

I've finished No 3's quilt and I'll try photographing it later... I need his 6'2" height to hold it up... and as you know teenagers are not always collaborators, not when 'he's playing a competitive and he'll get banned if he stops'. Whatever. Bloody computer games.

I've started de-constructing the indigo dyed vintage quilt:

The hideous background who didn't take the colour as it's obviously synthetic needs to go and be replaced. It's quite a slow process but I like the fact I'm in no rush and can unpick a little bit now, a little bit later... It's meditative in an otherwise frantic day to day.

I almost don't want to do it quickly.

First day of half-term for us today. It's 9.40 and the boys are all still in bed.

They also brought home their school reports. Some take things less seriously than others:

Saturday, 10 September 2016

I've had this quilt for years. Probably seven or eight... it was an impulse eBay purchase (don't tell me you've never done that!) and the original idea was to turn into a pair of curtains.

Well, that never happened... I liked it... but it would have been a little to shabby-chic for my taste and needed mending (which also never happened btw) so it lived in a box for a few years, and then on the 'baby feeding glider' which now resides in my study/studio/office/room.

I knew it was too good to be a dog blanket (sorry Lilli) and I toyed with the idea of cutting it up into table runners, or place mats, or even pillows... but but but...

nothing... 'resonated', no ideas felt right. You know?

So the other day off it went into the washing machine with some Dylon indigo dye and the rest its history (for a while I though my washing machine was going to be history too... ahem... I might have used a tad too much dye... maybe... perhaps...).

Because not all the hexagons are 100% cotton some took the dye in different ways and the result is even better than I could have imagined.

I so love this now.

You can see that some of the hexagons are totally shredded, those I'll unstitch and replace with some indigo dyed fabric I have. Also the hexagon top is simply appliquéd onto a big sheet that turned purple and just doesn't feel right...

See? I can unpick all the red thread quite easily and then add a new backing (probably one of the vintage sheets I dyed this summer when in Tuscany.

Monday, 05 September 2016

Yesterday I labelled clothes for two hours and ironed 18 school shirts. The irony of unpacking totally wrinkled 'non-iron' shirt didn't escape me. I'm hoping they'll emerge smoother from the washing machine in the coming weeks.

School starts tomorrow and for first time in four years they'll all be in the same place. Bless the lord.

Same holidays, same timings, same Christmas service...

My attention is being turned to the silly numbers of half-finished projects AND to the long list of projects I've been intending to attempt for months... I'm being realistic and I know there's no way I can finish them all BEFORE starting new ones, BUT I have a ticked off a few this summer. Two table runners, a shawl and a hat are ready for the drumroll.

It must be the September air. The smell of new pencils and the feel of new paper... (I miss going to school. I really do)... September is one of my favourite months, still warm but with a hint of chill in the air, shorter days, golden afternoons... (October is a bit more of a drag, November is awful and December is always bonkers...)

Anyway, first drumroll is for this experimental indigo table runner.

It's made with scraps that got thrown in the dye vat at the last minute and it was a case of randomly sewing pieces together and go from there.

Once again the crosshatch quilt shows its face... I can't get tired of it. Yes, it's bold... but I wanted to get an utilitarian feel here and hopefully this does it.

We don't use a table cloth and the table runners on our table protects from heat and spillages when hot plates and pots and pans are placed on it. They get washed and dried regularly and have to withstand a lot of use. I like it like that.

It'll go in the shop when I can find the big camera and take decent shots... who knows where it is (although I suspect fowl play here).

(I also need to soak this a little more to get rid of the soluble pen marks!)

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

I shouldn't be doing this... tomorrow I'm driving to Italy and I have prepared 'nothing'.

Nada.

Niente.

I'm at the stage of denial which will be followed by the frantic stage and then the panic stage.

Sigh.

Anyway... briefly and few more quilts for you. Incidentally I stumbled upon the American MQG blog and read all about the 'derivative' quilts saga. When is a derivative quilt a derivative quilt? When it's simply a quilt inspired by? when it is indeed a copy of? What happens when people come out with the same idea at the same time? Mind boggling and totally subjective subject... Very difficult to sort out that one I fear.

I'm not going into it here because I'm still thinking where I'm standing on that one.

My favourite quilts by far - and the ones I spent the majority of my time looking at - were the ones from the "European Quilt Triennial'

Stunning.

Here's but a few:

(Ruth Bosshart-Rohrbach)

(Randa Stewner)

(Gabrielle Paquin)

(Beatrice Lanter)

(Miriam Pet-Jacobs)

(Jette Clover)

(Urte Hanke)

(Segolaine Schweitzer)

(Marita Lappalained)

There were more... and all wonderful... and I keep picking up the catalogue and dreaming of experimenting...

For now though there are suitcases to pack and a beds to change and a dog to walk and a dishwasher to empty/refill and ...

Sunday, 14 August 2016

It's totally typical (and annoyingly ironic, if you're a fan of Alanis Morissette you'll understand) that the time the Festival steps up a gear I have only three hours to spend there.

Not enough by a long way.

After disposing of the three boys (well, one was left in bed, one sold to the gardener as cheap labour and another off to cricket trials) I bombed it to the Festival and spent the little time I had wondering around like a drunk fly from exhibition to exhibition filling my head with ideas and inspiration and not being able to pay enough attention to anything.

Sigh.

For the first time (I might be wrong... I can't remember it being the case last time I went) the quilts were split into well defined categories: modern, traditional, and art quilts. Which helped. I kind of skipped the traditional section and was very much interested in the other two... what's new? what's cooking? what's trending out there.

Then my camera ran out of battery. Of course.

And then my phone storage got full. Of course.

So I have a few photos of things that caught my eye and the list is by any means comprehensive...

Indigo was a big thing.

The yellow part were actually painted which was a surprise... I like the sun especially.

on the beach with Maggie (Linda Fovey)

Storm at sea (Pam Stallebrass)

What lies beneath (Sandra Meech)

Another 'trend' (I do hate that word) was the use of photos as background. I'd like to try that.

Elements (Hilary Beattie)

Gateways (Hilary Beattie)

Kaffe Fassett had a small exhibition of his vintage quilts (which were totally gorgeous/quilt envy/etc. etc.)

So tiny!!

scrap busting heaven.

....

Aaaaaand I think this is enough for now... digest this and come back for more if you dare!